Sleep in a Place so Alive
by Franki09
Summary: Aperture Science Innovators is always living, awake, moving, but humans need sleep, whether they're testing or not. And as hopeless as situations may seem, Chell can always rely on Wheatley to make her feel better. Set in that time Before-He-Went-Mad-And-Tried-To-Kill-Her. Not major Chelley, but not minor either. Android Wheatley. Please review!


Her muscles ached and her chest ached and her head ached and her whole _body _ached and all she wanted to do was lie down. Lie down and sleep, and maybe if she was lucky, she wouldn't wake up. It didn't seem too unlikely in a place like this. With Aperture Science, you never see anything coming and they always manage to find some weird, sick way to surprise you.

Maybe she didn't want to give GLaDOS the satisfaction. If she died in her sleep, GLaDOS would just continue testing with Blue and Orange like nothing had happened, and would think her weak or fat or some other stupid, _pointless _insult, for _dying_. Chell would be a mere blip on her conscience.

With this comforting thought the only thing crossing her exhausted mind, Chell slumped down against the wall, her breathing slow and heavy. A small smile of amusement flickered on her lips at the thought of GLaDOS continuing to insult her and mock her even after she had died, as if she could still hear GLaDOS's emotionless, mechanical voice.

With thick, slurred movements as if she were moving underwater, she slid the ASHPD off of her arm and laid it gently on the floor beside her. She wished the Companion Cube were here right now. Even though it pained her to keep telling herself that it didn't actually have a conscience, the Aperture scientists had programmed it to vibrate ever so slightly, with internal heating and a faint hum, giving it the effect of a sleeping kitten. That sort of thing would have been real comforting in a time like this.

The silence was almost unbearable. Even GLaDOS had decided to stay quiet, but in this circumstance, Chell found herself longing for the AI's taunting, just so there was something to listen to. Complete silence was unnerving.

Chell hadn't slept in days. The testing and the taunts had always stopped her from sleeping, and she only rested in intervals. The solution euphoria edged her on until she was almost addicted to the very thing she hated so much. But she knew, eventually, she would have to give in to her body's desire of sleep, even if she barely noticed it's existence when testing. As soon as she stopped moving, to sit still, her exhaustion would come crashing down and she would suddenly feel all the tiredness from the past few days in one huge tidal wave, and she'd be asleep in seconds.

Her breathing had slowed now, as she leaned against the wall outside the exit to the test chamber she had just completed. Her body still hurt from continuous exercise and physical strain, and even after she had gotten the sleep and energy she so needed, it would still hurt. The world went black as her eyelids fluttered closed, but the glare from the bright, artificial lights had penetrated through the privacy of her eyelids onto the back of her skull, where it was forever ingrained onto the backs of her eyelids. It was always hard to find sleep in the Enrichment centre, a place always so alive. Then again, that wasn't so hard to believe.

After mere moments of closed eyes, she was about to drop off when a voice, a loud, familiar voice, startled her out of the peace. It broke through the silence as effectively as a nuclear bomb.

"Luv?"

Chell jumped, eyes shooting open as she instinctively poised herself for any potential threat. When her gaze caught sight of the familiar android waving cheerily down at her from behind a translucent glass window of one of the observation chambers, she relaxed. Not quite sure how she felt in response, Chell settled for an eye roll as she grunted and blew a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. In acknowledgment of his presence, she stood up and raised a hand back. A grin broke out onto his artificial face at the response, and he hit the glass with his fists. Only a faint thud could be heard from where she was stood.

"Can you hear me down there?"

She nodded, but he probably wouldn't be able to see it at that distance. She could hear him, but his voice was dulled and slightly muffled from the glass.

"If you can hear me, would you be able to just, signify that you can with a gesture, if you know what I mean? A cough, or a- a wave, or, or jumping! Jumping generally seems to work for you. Yes luv, if you can hear me a nice big jump would be great!"

She only caught a few words, but she got the general gist of things. Choosing to ignore his request, Chell settled to picking up her ASHPD, shooting an orange portal in the ceiling above his head, and another of the blue kind in the wall next to her. Hauling the remaining strength she had left, she strode through the portal and left him just enough time to dodge out the way before she nearly squashed him flat, landing gracefully and neatly on the floor below her.

Picking herself up and brushing herself down contentedly, Wheatley grinned again goofily and clumsily hurried over to her, his dramatic hand gestures flailing in all directions as he fussed over her. "That was bloody cool! Are you alright? That was quite a fall, I mean, I've seen you fall far greater distances, actually, I've seen you fall _miles, _but still, you never know! That was very clever of you there, I was actually wondering myself what we could do about that, but then again, you never jumped so I don't actually know whether you could hear me or not, but…"

Chell at this point had learned how to tune out his ramblings, and quickly cut him off with a brisk but tight embrace. He stopped mid-sentence, returning the hug with an awkward pat on the back. "Alright then, um, i-it's good to see you too. Haven't actually seen you in a while."

Chell squeezed his waist once more, before pulling back, taking in his scruffy, unkempt appearance. After GLaDOS had crushed him, he hadn't been in the best of shape. His forehead was dented in, and an opening in the skin on his shoulder had torn through both his white-now-grey Aperture jumpsuit and his flesh, revealing the metal panels beneath. Every so often he would twitch and electric sparks would jump about his neck, and his dirty clothes were torn and tattered and had a spot of blood on his arm which could only be Chell's.

Despite his cheery attitude and composition, Chell saw the tiredness reflected in his shockingly blue eyes, or optics. It made her wonder briefly how a robot was able at displaying emotion through artificial glass, but something about him just seemed _off. _Deep down, he was just as fed up as she was. "Luv?" he asked concernedly. "You feeling okay?"

_I'm fine._

She nodded, faking a smile for him and punching his shoulder lightly, playfully. Nevertheless, he chuckled and rubbed his shoulder as if she had hurt him slightly, but if she had, he said nothing of it. Chell grasped his hand, pulling him along and ignoring his questions and streams of words as she shot an orange portal into the wall so they didn't have to jump through the ceiling, and pulled them both through. They were hit with the cool blast of air that always came after exiting a portal, after the stomach turning feeling Chell had gotten used to. She wondered if he could feel it too.

More tired than ever now, Chell resumed her position from earlier, flinching at the cool touch of the wall as it pressed against her bare shoulders and neck. After seeing the confused expression on his face, she patted the ground next to him in a way that was clearly asking her to join him.

"Alright then luv," he said with a grin, coming to sit next to her. His long, robotic legs screeched and wheezed as he pulled them into an awkward sitting position, so much that he would have blushed in embarrassment as he settled for stretching his legs out. Chell let out a silent laugh, patting his hand as he cracked a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that, you know," he apologised. "They're a bit on the rusty side, haven't been oiled in a while."

Chell smiled, but inside she just wanted to sleep. Wheatley always had a way of making her feel better, but it didn't last. She felt just as tired as before, and the pain wouldn't go away. She found herself studying the android's face, perplexed, as she wondered if he would really be capable of helping her escape. She hadn't managed to do it the last time by herself, and the aid of a bumbling, dare she say it, moron, (even if it wasn't intended in a harsh light,) wouldn't make much of a difference. Then again, his ideas had been clever and they had worked so far, even if he had only sparked the idea, leaving the actual plans up to her.

His presence was of little comfort. She still felt troubled, couldn't take her mind off the impending death that loomed over her every day, with the possibility that it could happen any time, any day. And Wheatley, as lovable as he was, wouldn't be able to save her.

It would be easier, though. So much easier than working and trying every day, when it could all end up to be for nothing anyway. But she had come this far, so why give up now? And besides, Chell wasn't one to give up, despite how hard things had become. She was seriously considering it though, and had been from the start.

Without realizing she was doing it, she subconsciously reached for Wheatley's hand beside her and gave it a squeeze. He turned to her in confusion. "Luv?"

_Do you feel like giving up?_

She wished she could talk, just so she could ask him these questions.

_I certainly feel like it._

She was just so tired. She had sucker's luck. Maybe it wasn't really worth it.

_I feel like giving up._

Whatever she had been thinking, it certainly showed on her face, because the next she heard was, "Lady, are you alright?"

Chell looked up at him and saw the concern in his eyes, heard it in his voice, and wiped her cheek just in case. "Luv, y-you have water coming out of your eyes. I-is that meant to happen?"

The question was ridiculous, and she couldn't help but laugh silently as she nodded, but it still didn't make the situation any better. Wheatley was as a part of Aperture as much as the rest of it, and although she was the closest she had to a friend that thought couldn't help itself from appearing in her head. She hated it. She hated it all. She just wanted to get away from it all, from the disgustingly clean white walls and the portal gun and the damn _science _and the bloody _testing, _and GLaDOS, oh, GLaDOS. And from him.

But then she felt his arm wrap around her shoulder, and heard his voice say, "I- it's okay. It's okay."

For once, he knew when to be quiet. For the first time, he kept his idiocy to a minimum and knew how to react in this situation. Aperture could do things to people, whether they had been created there or not, and he was just as hopeless as she was.

_I'm so tired._

Her exhaustion got the better of her. She was so tired she couldn't even think properly anymore. Her head dropped 'til it was resting on his shoulder, and her only thought was, _This is better than a Companion Cube._

Wheatley was confused as to why she was hugging him, but after witnessing such displays of emotion from a usually stoic character, he decided it would be best not to press the matter. So he just chuckled nervously and patted her back, which she knew was the only thing he could do.

Chell could feel the warmth resonating off of his internal hardware, and hear the faint hum and clicks of the circuitry and processors and hard drive disc and whatever other mechanical instruments he had inside him. He was as robotic and mechanical as the rest of them, but there was something so human about him that befuddled Chell to no end.

"Luv, would you mind getting off me? This is rather uncomfortable, you know.

You- you're not moving. Of course, you don't have to! I'm fine if you don't move, I mean, I'd rather you did, but-

H-hey, your eyes are closed. Luv, are- are you sleeping? Are you asleep?

Okay, you're asleep. I can understand that, you must be bloody tired.

…

You realize that I can't sleep, right?

…

Never mind."

In Aperture, no matter how desolate it became, it was always awake and alive and moving, in some manner or form, whatever way it can find.

But sometimes, for two lonely people who want nothing more than release from the confinement of testing and science, you can always find rest when you're tired.

Whether it was day or night, he would never know, but the android just felt it right to say, "G'night, luv."

* * *

**A/N. Hey! I'm back on the site, and I'm back with some Portal for you lovelies. I hope you enjoy it. **

**I was listening to the song 'Exile Vilify' by the National whilst writing this, and it enhances the experience if you listen to it too.**

**All characters and content belong to VALVe ©, not me. **

**Reviews mean a lot to me!**

**~Franki**


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